UNITED NATIONS – Dangling the release of Burma’s best-known freedom fighter, Aung San Suu Kyi, Rangoon’s military rulers hope to avert further outside help for victims of the deepening crisis in Burma, its opponents say.

Fresh from a trip that included a visit with Ms. Suu Kyi, U.N. Undersecretary-General Ibrahim Gambari yesterday indicated that she might soon be freed.

Addressing Turtle Bay reporters yesterday, prior to briefing the Security Council or Secretary-General Annan, Mr. Gambari said, “We were there, we made the appeal directly,” and “if anything will happen, I think we’ve done the best that we can to promote such an outcome.” In the meantime, he said, medical care should be accorded to Ms. Suu Kyi “and her companion.”

Japan’s U.N. ambassador, Kenzo Oshima, said Mr. Gambari told him that Ms. Suu Kyi came to their Rangoon meeting last week “with a companion.” Another diplomat described the companion as a “caretaker” living with Ms. Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest and who, prior to last week’s meeting, was seen by no outsider for nearly three years.

Mr. Gambari, who during the rule of dictator Sani Abacha served as Nigeria’s U.N. ambassador, said that the military dictatorship in Burma is showing signs it wants “to turn a new page in relations with the international community.”

At the same time, the regime seemed to prepare the ground for a possible release of the Nobel peace laureate, Ms. Suu Kyi, who has been in custody on and off since the landslide victory of the party she heads, the National League for Democracy, in a 1990 election.

“I think there will not be rallies or riots in Myanmar if Suu Kyi is released,” Burma’s police chief, Major-General Khin Yi, told reporters at a Kuala Lumpur meeting of Southeast Asian chiefs of police. “I don’t think there are a lot of supporters for her. Some members of the NLD have resigned.”

Backers of the opposition were not impressed. The junta has set Ms. Suu Kyi free several times before as pressure on the government mounted, only to re-arrest her later, the policy director for the Washington-based U.S. Campaign for Burma, Aung Din, told The New York Sun. Mr. Annan “should be aware of the promises given and broken frequently by this regime,” he said.

While Mr. Gambari planned his visit, Mr. Din added, “NLD members were forced to resign, the party was threatened and told to disband, and ethnic minorities were attacked and forced to flee from their homeland.”

The fighting with minority Karen rebels has intensified in recent weeks, forcing villagers to flee across the Thai border. Drugs from Burma reportedly have been smuggled across the border to China, and reports of AIDS cases are on the rise.

Mr. Annan “should ask the U.N Security Council to adopt a binding resolution, which will make the regime really turn a new page,” Mr. Din said.

A statement released yesterday by the chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus of the Association of South East Asian Nations, Zaid Ibrahim, also called on the council to adopt a resolution that would “empower [the council] to intervene in Burma’s crises.”

Earlier this week, American ambassador John Bolton asked Mr. Gambari to officially brief the council on his Burma trip. According to diplomats, there were no objections. Mr. Gambari yesterday refused to tell the Sun if Ms. Suu Kyi urged the involvement of the council or whether Mr. Annan would support such a move.